Lazy people will never achieve anything in life. However, laziness can be defeated once a few changes have been made in your mind.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Many people lack sleep constantly, since they stay up too late and get up too early to prepare for work. These people have little motivation once they arrive home. Laziness works hand in hand with a lack of motivation and a tendency to put off things. By adjusting yow sleep schedule to provide a few more hours of meaningful rest, you can fight laziness throughout the day.

    Another way to fight laziness is to change your mind from passive to active. Some people treat their lives as if they were pushed from project to project. Others take a more proactive approach, viewing each project or task as a challenge they must overcome alone. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} 

    Some people fight laziness by removing the temptations that surround them. A television in the living room may provide entertainment, but watching too much TV often promotes laziness {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Complete a certain number of chores and reward yourself with a good dinner or a film.

    Laziness can also be a lasting problem at home. Couples and children may all have different energy levels, but laziness can be spread if not dealt with quickly. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Be the first to collect and wash dishes after a meal. Others in the home may eventually follow your example and perform their own chores. It is difficult to practice laziness when you are surrounded by motivated people.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Enough exercise and a balanced diet can help you to develop a healthy lifestyle, thus enabling you to have more energy and help boost your mood.

A. Knowing how to fight laziness is important.

B. Om way to fight laziness is to get enough sleep.

C. Finally, taking exercise regularly can help you fight laziness.

D. With strong determination, you will be able to achieve your goal.

E. Laziness sets in when you no longer feel in charge of your own life.

F. Create a reward system for yourself, just as parents do for the children.

G. To fight household laziness, set an example.

    You may use banknotes every day. But did you know that there is a lot of science behind the money? {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Australia was the first country to use polymer(聚合物）banknotes in 1988. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

They can stop water from making them wet. They are also cleaner because bacteria don't grow easily on them.

Now, the Australians have improved their banknotes again by creating a new 5-dollar note. The new one has a clear window in the middle in which there are pictures of an Australian bird and a building. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Tilt (倾斜）the note a little and you will see the bird flapping its wings as if trying to fly away. Turn the note from side to side and you will notice the building come to life and spin. While these features are impressive and entertaining, that was not the reason why the Australian Government spent ten years perfecting them. Their primary purpose was to make it impossible to fake a banknote.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The new $ 5 bill now has a raised bump alongside the two long edges, enabling the blind or those with limited vision, to quickly determine its value.

The Australian government will give the new 10-dollar note the same features in a year's time. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Note makers still have a long way to go.

B. Other notes will have them in the future.

C. The magic of the new features lies in them.

D. They have many advantages over paper notes.

E. The new Australian 5-dollar note is a good example.

F. The new note is also the first touchable Australian banknote.

G. Their material and pattern set them apart from ordinary banknotes.

Hobbies

    Hobbies play an important role in our life. Most people have a lot of free time available but seldom use it gainfully.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}There are many hobbies from which you can pick and you can choose one that suits your talents.

    Once you have decided to start a hobby, it will be wise to go through a list of popular hobbies and choose one that is close to your heart and can make you feel confident. Some of the most popular hobbies that people generally take to are reading, listening to music, gardening, fishing, sports, music, exercise and computer-related activities.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} Once you start, you seldom think of giving it up.

    Learning a new hobby is really a wonderful experience. As you progress, you will be living in a new world and learning new skills. You will begin to discover your hidden talents that you didn't know. You will start reading more about your hobby, meeting other hobbyists with similar interests, exchanging views and building friend circles both near and far.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}In these games you will get the opportunity to meet others on a regular basis and develop great relationship.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}They can help you keep good health and remain fit. On the other hand, if you are young and take a great interest in sports, you can develop your skills and finally get financially rewarded too. Similarly, gardening provides the hobbyist with enjoyable pastime and opportunity for relaxation. At the same time they get the rewards of their labor.

    People take up hobbies for interest, enjoyment and relaxation. Over a period of time, you might develop outstanding skills and get financially rewarded.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Each of these hobbies can give you great benefits.

B. This will change when you play games like golf, basketball or tennis.

C. Most importantly, the main aim of having a hobby is for personal satisfaction.

D. Physical hobbies like sports and gardening can be very rewarding.

E. This will be more so if you take up games like golf, basketball or tennis.

F. Although these hobbies can benefit you a lot, you may not keep them forever.

G. They would rather chat with their friends than use their talents and start a hobby.

    The word “diary” comes from the Latin word “diarium”, which means “daily allowance”. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}And it is used for business notes, planning activities, keeping track of scheduled appointments, or documenting what has already happened. Some doctors suggest that writing in a diary is a good form of self-study.

    In America, from the 1940s through the 1980s, a diary was thought of mostly as a way to privately express one's deepest thoughts while keeping notations about the day.  {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Many times, movies would show a teenage girl beginning to write in her diary while she said aloud, “Dear diary”

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} A diary kept by a young German Jewish girl by the name of Anne Frank provides us with invaluable lessons about history, for she documented her experiences while she hid from the Nazis during their occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. Her diary became one of the world's most widely read books and is the basis for many films.

    Samuel Pepys, who lived during the 17th century, is the earliest diary keeper that is famous today. His diary is also an important documentation of history, for it gives personal insight （洞察力） into London's Great Plague and the Great Fire. His diary is being published on the Internet, and it's interesting to note that there has been a new entry every day since January of 2003. It will continue over the course of several years to come. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Today's electronic version of the diary, the web log or “blog” has once again stretched the diary to be much more than a personal account of the day's events. There are blogs to document recipes, traveling, movies, independent news, product announcements, photos, and anything else that needs to be recorded over time. Search engines like Technorati.com have been created to keep track of the more than 112 million blogs that are currently public.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. It refers to a book for writings by date.

B. In its newest form, the diary has become more popular than ever.

C. Reading his diary is fascinating, and it makes his life all the more real to us.

D. People love to write diaries, so whenever they are free, they will write a few lines.

E. Those private reflections may have historical significance long after the author's death.

F. Nowadays, the blog has taken the place of the diary and becomes more and more popular.

G. In those times, and even continuing on today, writing in a diary was like writing to a special friend.

Ways to Worry Less

    Do you want to worry less? Of course you do. That's like asking if I can send you free bacon. Worry is like black mold—it appears in damp conditions and spreads uncontrollably. And very often we don't realize it's there until it's killing us. We must get rid of worry before it destroys us. But how should we do it? {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Do what you need to do.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} You ought not to avoid tough projects or hard conversations. If you don't do what you should be doing, you will end up spending the rest of the time worrying about the must-do things. Believe it or not, the anxiety that comes from the worry is much worse than the task we're worried about.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    I think many of us act like we're puppets (木偶) in a play and we're waiting for something or someone to put us in the right place. We just react to whatever is going on. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} We need to live purposefully. Nothing can cause more worry than purposelessness.

    Make plans.

    You can't succeed without making plans. Making plans will enable you to achieve your aims more smoothly. However, your plans aren't set in stone. You can adjust your plans flexibly. Accept changes. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    There are other ways to lessen worry. As long as you are determined to take action, you will live a worry-free life.

    The UN's Millennium Development Goals included the ambition that by 2015 all the world's children would complete primary school. This has largely been achieved: nine out of ten children are now enrolled. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Even though most of the world's children go to school, an awful lot of them learn pretty much nothing there. According to a recent World Bank study of seven sub-Saharan African countries, half of nine-year-olds cannot read a simple word and three-quarters cannot read a simple sentence. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Several recent studies suggest education technology can help  It seems to bring about bigger improvements in poor countries than in rich ones.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} That doesn't mean buying computers for schools in the hope that children will understand how to use them, a stupidity on which plenty of money has been wasted. Instead, it means providing schools with software that children can use with minimal help from an adult. The software gets things right more often than the teachers do, adjusts itself to the child's ability, and sends teachers instructions about what they are supposed to be teaching. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Technology is no panacea(万灵药) . {#blank#}5{#/blank#} And authorities need to take teachers into account. But education technology can help greatly — by monitoring pupils and teachers alike, assisting the best teachers and, most important, making up for the failings of the worst.

A. The reason is terrible teaching.

B. The achievements are really great.

C. However, the figure is not as impressive as it sounds.

D. Technology plays more and more important role in teaching.

E. Good traditional teachers are not outdated, and are never likely to be.

F. Meanwhile it allows the authorities to check on whether the teacher is in the classroom.

G. Some of the scarce resources being spent on teachers could therefore be better spent on education technology.